First off, thanks to all of the hundreds of people, organizations, and businesses that helped make this happen. This first annual event was awesome.
Spring into Bed, a grassroots effort, is/was an iteration of the work of Stephanie Snyder-Seliga (who I am lucky to call my wife). While coordinating the Kitchen Garden Project she initiated ”Day of the Bed”, which focused on building gardens for low-income people, and one reason I fell for her, as I was getting CEL rolling at the same time.
CEL was founded on the idea of making a business model that helped people of all incomes grow food in their spaces. Utilizing a “sliding-scale” approach, during the first 4 years of business we provided economic support for people of lower incomes. While this was nourishing spiritually, it was not sustainable, meaning the business (and our philosophies) would not be around very long if we continued in this manner. This is why we sought partnerships that could help make this mission happen. Enter Seattle Tilth, whose director and board decided this year to support the Food Justice mission. Our communities/city/region is wealthy in human, financial, and other resources, and the networks we create make things happen more quickly–and beautifully. Soon after, Seattle Tilth provided fiscal sponsorship for Spring into Bed, the May 8th event focused on building a Just food-system–NOW.
CEL signed on as first “captain” –there were 8 total– pledging to raise $1000. Our business generated this through cutting sod, and, the generosity of the members of the Community-Supported Plant Starts program. Hustle and Chutzpah of our team sellings plants, building edible gardens and landscapes, and providing hands on garden education filled in the balance
We (Spring into Bed) built 9 gardens (two of which were sizable) for lower income individuals on May 8th. CEL’s site was at a church in a low-income neighborhood in South Seattle. Stephanie let me know a few days before the garden build day that I was going to have 70 middle school kids help. I said “Great with a grin and thought ” I did not sign up for this but I’ve been here before”, having worked at Seattle Youth Garden Works.
The youth were fun, and they had great supervision from City-Year. They especially liked Mayor Mike McGinn’s Magic Pole Beans donated to the cause. We built a large garden and planted half of it; we moved a shed and removed a lot of blackberry. The members of the congregation were really thankful for all of our support. This gratitude was expressed throughout the project from the garden recepients for the material and logistical support to help them get their gardens going. I feel blessed that I got to play Garden Gnome. I also feel blessed that I got to talk to the youth about Food Security and Justice.
Spring into Bed got it’s traction before Will Allen made an appearance in February, but his words (with my paraphrase) were nonetheless inspiring: ”Stop talking. If you’re not going to do something in the next 3 months, then examine what you are doing.” Gettings things (Food Justice) done, leading through example–we want this movement to be contagious–,as was facilitating connections between individuals in the food were the motivations for Spring into Bed, and I feel happy to say that all of these things happened. It also make me feel happy to think of the dirty hands of the new gardeners who will be eating good healthy food.
Moving forward, we hope to expand this community-supported model of Food Justice garden building throughout the rest of 2010 and beyond. Each week there’s at least one family with limited resources that contacts Cascadian Edible Landscapes for building a garden. On Spring into Bed’s list 9/20 were fulfilled. While we do what we can, the larger Seattle communitycan get more done if we put our life force into it.
Thanks again to everyone who made this happen and we at CEL look forward to further co-labs.